


Mutualism

by NeurotropicAgentX



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Blades, Blood, Carlton Drake has a Plan, Consumption of Flesh, Elements of Body Horror, Other, Pain, Rare Pair, Technically Safe Sane and Consensual, Violent Sex, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 11:07:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeurotropicAgentX/pseuds/NeurotropicAgentX
Summary: ‘Do it,’ Drake said suddenly.Riot froze, blades poised.You don’t know what you’re asking for.Drake’s gaze flicked over their reflection, looking for a piece of Riot to make eye contact with. ‘You miss control. You miss hunting. You’re a predator, Igetthat,’ Drake was speaking fast now, the words falling from his lips and nearly running into each other. ‘I also know that you can fix anything you do to me and you can feel what I’m feeling. I’m your host, Riot. I want to give youwhateveryou need.’





	Mutualism

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my editor for her invaluable assistance.

The mission had to come first. Riot was a team leader and exactly half of the remaining scouts left alive on this toxic, forsaken planet. The rocket was fast approaching readiness, despite the endless logistical challenges that the other humans kept throwing in Drake’s path. Riot had to focus. It couldn’t afford distractions, especially not while it was using this host. 

Inhabiting Drake had its advantages. There was access to plentiful and easy prey. Riot hadn’t been hungry once since it had started feeding on lab animals. But while small caged animals satisfied the need for fuel, the desire to actually go and hunt or fight had been steadily building. 

Worse was the constant need to suppress its instincts. It couldn’t feed on this host, couldn’t use the body the way it wanted to. It had to stay hidden and calm and unobtrusive. That meant no opportunities to draw out a kill, to feel prey struggle beneath its blades and claws. 

‘Are you hungry?’ Drake asked, interrupting Riot’s thoughts. He was pressing a hand to his chest, beneath the heartbeat, where Riot was coiling around itself and swirling irritably. 

**Not hungry,** Riot replied tersely. Drake had just finished showering and Riot hadn’t bothered manifesting, despite the way it usually enjoyed the water drops on its surface. Of course Drake would have noted the aberrant behaviour.

Drake paused, giving Riot a chance to speak again, but it remained silent. ‘Something’s obviously bothering you. Is there anything I can do to help?’

Riot growled before it could stop itself. **You want me to explain so you can fix it. Make the problem go away _for_ me.** Being so reliant on a host was demeaning. A partnership would have been bad enough, but to have Drake providing prey and spearheading the mission when Riot was the team leader in charge of this whole ugly planet stabbed at its pride. 

‘...yes?’ Drake replied cautiously. He could obviously feel Riot’s seething resentment, even if he didn’t, _couldn’t_ , understand the source. ‘I know the rocket’s taking days longer than anticipated. I wasn’t expecting the EPA to get involved. I suspect there’s someone on the inside of this project who’s very invested in delaying us. Sorry. It’s frustrating.’

Riot spread its outermost projections away from its centre mass, letting its tendrils slide along Drake’s nerves. It wanted to shift teeth and blades. It imagined the sounds Drake would make if it dragged those edges through his body. If it fed.

 **Frustrating,** Riot repeated softly.

Drake had stilled in front of the mirror when he felt Riot move. There was an uptick in his curiosity. During a stealth infiltration Riot tried to hide its presence, but it didn’t feel like being stealthy for even one more second. Drake’s palms landed flat and hard on the countertop in front of him. Tweaking the muscles and tendons to make it happen was trivial for someone with Riot’s depth of experience. Humans weren’t even close to the strongest or most difficult types of hosts Riot had inhabited. 

Drake was silent when Riot moved him, but he was thinking hard. Riot could sense the electrical activity in his brain, even though it wasn’t bothering to parse any of it. Pieces of Riot’s flesh tingled as the desire to form weaponry ran through it. Instead of doing anything that could damage host flesh it manifested, oozing out through Drake’s skin to coat his shoulders and trickle down his chest and arms. The leading edges of its tendrils formed thin precise blades that stayed flat against Drake’s skin.

That was enough to break Drake’s silence. ‘I haven’t seen you manifest quite like this before,’ he noted. His voice was calm and even, but Riot could feel the quickened beating of his pulse. It had only immobilised the hands and wrists, but Drake was holding utterly still in that eerie way humans did when they weren’t making deliberate movements. The stillness was obscurely pleasing to Riot in a way it didn’t think about too closely. 

**No. There has been no point. Nothing to hunt. Nothing to fight.**

‘You’re… bored?’ Drake guessed. 

**Not that.** Riot knew about boredom from its various human hosts. The concept was new to it. When there was nothing worth its attention, it drifted. Most often a change in environment signalled a threat. Wanting something to pay attention to was a strange human desire. What it wanted was to _act_ on its goals, but anything it could do to further the mission was already being done by Drake. The host. **You act while I _can’t_.** It couldn’t keep the snarl out of its tone.

‘So this is about autonomy, then? You have to hide yourself and let me act for both of us when you’re used to a more equal arrangement.’

Riot carefully kept its bitter amusement away from their rudimentary link. There was nothing equal about the way it typically used its hosts. **Yes,** it said simply. That was as much of its distaste as it was willing to admit.

‘We’re alone and safe. If you want full control of the body for a while, it’s yours,’ Drake said easily. Then he hesitated. ‘I have some idea of what you’re capable of.’

Riot growled. Drake had _no_ idea what it was capable of. The blades overlying Drake flicked, the sharp edges pressing against soft human skin. Slicing into that vulnerable flesh would be barely any effort at all. It was an effort not to. 

Still Drake stood braced against the counter, not twitching, not trying to pull away from the place Riot had set him. He stared at Riot’s swaying tendril-blades in the mirror. His heartbeat was racing, pushing blood laced with dozens of chemical messages signalling something that wasn’t quite fear and wasn’t quite arousal. 

‘Do it,’ Drake said suddenly.

Riot froze, blades poised. **You don’t know what you’re asking for.**

Drake’s gaze flicked over their reflection, looking for a piece of Riot to make eye contact with. ‘You miss control. You miss hunting. You’re a predator, I _get_ that,’ Drake was speaking fast now, the words falling from his lips and nearly running into each other. ‘I also know that you can fix anything you do to me and you can feel what I’m feeling. I’m your host, Riot. I want to give you _whatever_ you need.’

A deep anger seized Riot. Drake meant every word, but he had no idea what he was saying. He didn’t know anything about Riot, didn’t even know the nature of the mission and what would become of the Earth and his precious humans when the rest of Riot’s people came. Drake’s reverence and wonder for Riot were tantalising, heady emotions, but ultimately hollow. Frustrating. 

Riot struck. Its blades bit into Drake’s skin, drawing a dozen shallow cuts. Blood welled up against Riot’s sharp edges, rich and warm. It absorbed some, the taste of a compatible host satisfying a deep-rooted need. This was a mistake. There was no holding back now, not after Riot had given in to its screeching instincts. It wanted prey to struggle and bleed and Drake was the only living thing in the room. The only living thing on this whole floor. Riot was going to endanger the entire mission just to sate its bloodlust. 

Drake made a choked sound in the back of his throat as Riot sliced into his flesh, but he didn’t pull away, didn’t struggle or even speak. His breath was coming in harsh pants, deadly air filling his lungs before being pushed out the barest moment later. The balance of chemicals in his body hadn’t shifted either. His gaze was riveted on the refection in the mirror, his eyes tracking the trickles of blood sliding down his arms and chest.

The lack of fear and horror made Riot uneasy enough that it paused. Why was Drake just standing there, not even trying to stop this? Riot was spread over and beneath Drake’s skin. It could feel the sparking of his nerves as they registered sharp, intoxicating pain.

While Riot hesitated, Drake spoke. ‘You’re not done, are you? I can feel how much you want this.’ His voice was low and harsh. Riot immediately wrenched itself away from their link. It hadn’t been paying attention to hiding its emotions, not when the effort of not slicing deeper was so great. Drake gave a breathless laugh. ‘Far too late for that.’ 

The uneasiness spread through Riot like poison diffusing through still waters. Some of that _must_ be from Drake, a prey’s fear. Riot growled and twisted one of the blades that was buried in the meat of Drake’s shoulder. Drake cried out and his hands tried to curl against the countertop where they were still pinned. That was the only part of his body he tried to move, the part Riot was holding still.

 **There are better ways to struggle,** Riot said softly.

‘I’m not trying to struggle.’

Riot formed heavy blades, the kind it used in combat and hadn’t had the chance to manifest for weeks. They sprouted from Drake’s flesh to press against the strong pulse that beat in his neck, in his chest and in his thigh. Any serious wound in those locations could bleed this body out in moments. It had done that to other humans. Riot tipped Drake’s chin up with the blade at his neck to bare the length of his throat. **Maybe you should.**

Finally Drake shifted, and for a moment Riot thought he was trying to get away from the blade digging into his thigh. But no, Riot knew what was happening as soon as it felt the brush of hot flesh against the flat of its blade. There was no ignoring the flare of arousal in Drake’s body as his erection slid along Riot’s flesh. ‘Why would I struggle when I’m exactly where I want to be?’ 

For a beat of Drake’s heart Riot was frozen in shock. It had been in many hosts over its lifetime and knew all about species with positive feedback mechanisms in reproduction and sex. Even the direct experience of Drake’s arousal wasn’t new. But for Drake to be feeling arousal _now_ , while Riot was hurting him like this… 

A fierce restlessness seized Riot and underneath that a terrible fascination welled up. It focused on the heavy blade resting against Drake’s heartbeat. For a suspended moment it considered piercing right through the ribcage and tearing into the source of Drake’s pulse. Riot was fast. It could probably repair the damage before Drake died. It imagined the taste of Drake’s panic, the wash of pain. The deeper tissue had fewer nerves and relayed a duller, less specific sensation to the host brain. That wasn’t quite what Riot wanted.

Its heavy blade twisted and ran the length of Drake’s sternum instead, digging deep and parting the flesh to the bone. They screeched. The sound tore from Drake’s human throat, but both their voices cried out. They were too close, too synchronised in intent and desire. This wasn’t true symbiosis, but it was close enough that Riot felt the pain and its own bloodlust and the arousal all at once. The feelings blended together into one overwhelming sensation. The symbiotic link was a humming feedback loop and Riot could barely separate its experiences and desires from Drake’s. It sank beneath Drake’s skin and slowed the blood-flow to a trickle. It began to knit the flesh back together, but slowly, drawing out the process. 

Drake was shaking but he stood transfixed, staring at the closing wound. ‘Unbelievable,’ he rasped. ‘I think I can feel you at the healing edges.’ 

**Probable.** Much of Riot’s substance was concentrated around the wound as it repaired the damage. It manifested, pushing a few thin tendrils past the torn flesh and muscles so that Drake could see it. 

Drake’s gaze locked onto the projections and his breath hitched. ‘There’s nothing you couldn’t do to me, is there?’ he said. ‘You can be anywhere, any capillary, any muscle, my… my brain.’ He shivered as he said those last words. 

For days now Riot had been trying to hide the full extent of its abilities, but Drake seemed to have grasped the situation. And still he wasn’t afraid. Still his consciousness was reaching out toward connection and symbiosis. He did it frequently and most of the time it was easy for Riot to evade the clumsy attempts, but right now its focus was split between too many tasks and too many impulses.

The wound wasn’t quite sealed yet and blood welled up in a sluggish line. With the repair nearly complete, Riot was free to manifest more of itself. It emerged from Drake’s shoulder and formed a face to give itself eyes. Visual processing wasn’t natural for Riot, but with a human host it could access the necessary structures in Drake’s brain. It had developed a fondness for colour. Red had become a particular favourite.

Its tongue slithered out and lapped at the blood drying on Drake’s chest. Even at its freshest, spilled blood lacked the depth of taste found in the living blood that flowed through Drake’s arteries. That blood was rich with a thousand chemical signals all racing toward alien, complex objectives. 

Drake moaned as Riot’s tongue dragged over his skin. It was getting difficult not to view him as prey. Hard enough for Riot to resist its instincts at the best of times, but now that it was slicing into flesh and licking over Drake’s skin it couldn’t stop. It surged forward and buried its teeth in Drake’s shoulder. It had just enough presence of mind not to tear into the joint. Harder to fix that afterwards. The bite it took was small by its standards, but Drake’s arm spasmed against its jaw and he made a wounded noise of animal pain. 

The meat was hot and fresh on Riot’s tongue. There was nothing like a compatible host. Nothing like the taste of flesh that was familiar to it on a molecular level. Drake arched against its teeth as Riot’s tongue slithered gently across the wound. It started repairing the damage even as its tongue chased the last traces of blood. It could feed internally without even alerting the host to what it was doing. That was a perfectly natural way to use a host, but this was better. This went beyond satisfying hunger, soothing a deeper, more complex need. 

Drake was gasping. His eyes were wide and his head had tipped right back as Riot finished with the wound. The muscles in his legs trembled from fatigue, blood-loss and pain. ‘Can’t stay upright,’ he panted. ‘Sorry. You’ll need to do it, or pick another position.’

A realisation hit Riot. Drake had been keeping still throughout. It hadn’t even told him to, let alone taken control to force the issue. ‘Sorry,’ Drake had said. While Riot’s weaponry and teeth had carved into his flesh. There was a flicker of something deep in Riot’s mind. The feeling was unfamiliar, not quite like the one it got when it patrolled the borders of its hunting grounds. Territorial? No, not quite, but close. 

It melted back into Drake and spread through his body, feeling out the boundaries and sliding gently along his nerves. It coiled around his spine and caressed his tendons as it prepared to take full control. A nameless desire shivered through it, blending together with the arousal roaring through Drake’s body. 

Riot took control the moment Drake’s legs gave out. Instead of fighting, Drake relaxed into Riot’s hold with something like relief. The acquiescence still took Riot by surprise, even now. It let out a pleased growl in the back of Drake’s skull, where only its host would hear. Then it took them through to the bedroom and stretched Drake’s body out on the bed. 

There were a few cuts still marring Drake’s flesh. Humans didn’t heal as fast or as well as Riot’s people. Its tendrils wandered across the body, above and under the skin, replenishing blood and healing all the little tears and spots of old damage it could find, even the ones it wasn’t responsible for. This kind of minute healing wasn’t something Riot had ever done for a host. Healing major damage was just maintenance, but this was something else. While Riot was distracted with the intensive task, Drake was free to move again.

‘We’re not done here,’ he growled. The harmonics in his voice sounded different, less alien than usual, almost familiar.

Riot kept most of its attention on the healing. **Much more damage and repair and we’ll need more food.** The labs with the animals were far away and Riot wasn’t keen on hiding beneath Drake’s skin again and pretending it didn’t exist.

Drake lashed out, wrapping a hand around the thickest of Riot’s tendrils and squeezing. He moved faster than a human could move and there were claws at the end of his fingers formed of Riot’s own substance. Symbiosis. They’d been sliding too close together this entire time and now Drake was accessing Riot’s own abilities through their shared biology. There was a dizzying lurch in Riot’s body as its instincts registered Drake as a predator for the first time. **You can’t–**

Drake spoke over the top of it. ‘We can.’ The words carried the harsh edge of Riot’s own voice. Hosts couldn’t _do_ this, shouldn’t be able to grasp their own half of symbiosis so quickly, so well. The bloodlust was back in full force, but it wasn’t all coming from Riot, in fact most of it was coming from _Drake_.

‘Do you have any idea what my species does to itself?’ Drake demanded. ‘Did you think there was nothing in me that resonated with your instincts for violence? I have been trying to get closer to you for _days_. Trying to get closer to **this**.’ 

**Symbiosis.**

‘Yes,’ Drake hissed. ‘You’ve been holding yourself back.’

 **Because it wasn’t safe.** Which was true, but not the full truth. Riot had been holding back in case Drake got close enough to see the plan. It couldn’t afford to endanger the mission or dilute its sense of self with a host’s goals and impulses. But with Drake… most sapient species, most hosts, tended to have evolved from prey animals. Higher carnivores or even omnivores were rare out in the galaxy. This kind of resonance, this kind of bond, was rare. Humans were startlingly compatible hosts and it was impressive that Drake had managed to pull them into this level of symbiosis with Riot actively resisting the link.

‘Well we’re alone and safe here. Stop fighting it.’

Riot shivered at the undertones in Drake’s voice. It manifested a head and even gave itself arms and clawed hands. A mirror of Drake’s limbs, but composed entirely of Riot’s own flesh. It looked down at Drake, at the not-quite-human teeth and claws. Drake’s eyes glinted in a way made Riot think of fire. Alien. Dangerous. 

Drake kept hold of Riot’s tendril, but brought his other hand around to dig into the substance of Riot’s head and draw it closer. He ran his tongue up one of Riot’s teeth. Riot understood the implication. They were close, so close, the link tangling them together tight enough that it felt Drake’s desires like its own. Its tongue slid out and it licked up Drake’s neck and across his lips. Drake shivered, a pleasant sensation that rippled back through Riot. 

‘God, Riot, please.’ Drake’s hips pushed up against the empty air. His blood was a cocktail of arousal chemicals and so much of the signal was centred around his genitals. He extricated his claws from Riot’s tendril so he could trail his hand down his body and wrap it around his cock. Even that simple touch felt good enough to start an exhilarating positive feedback loop. But Drake wanted more than that. His desire was close and powerful enough to taste.

Drake had done this before, with the body. Riot had never participated directly, only experienced the echoes of it through their link and in Drake’s blood. But Drake wanted and so Riot wanted and they were too close to even think about impulses as separate things. Riot forced Drake’s hand away from his cock so it could replace his grip with its own tendrils. It squeezed, enjoying both the harsh groan Drake made and the increased flood of pleasure signalling. It mimicked Drake’s usual movements for a couple of heartbeats before stilling. ‘Riot…’ Drake growled.

 **Inefficient,** Riot growled back. If Drake was sincere about what they were, there was no reason to accommodate human limitations. The tendrils wrapped around Drake’s cock melted back beneath the skin. There were so many nerves in this region, each one capable of delivering absurdly strong signals and already primed to tip over into an action potential. Riot twined around as many of them as it could, using only its most delicate projections. 

Riot prodded at some ion channels, initiating impulses in one or two nerves. It felt them fire off signals to the distant reward centres of the brain. Drake stopped breathing. He was a smart host. He probably would have known what was about to happen even if Riot hadn’t been making its presence felt. ‘Yes. Yes do it, come on,’ Drake demanded breathlessly. ‘Please.’

Riot gave a soft growl before hitting every nerve it was wrapped around. They sparked and released their neurotransmitters in a vast signal that flooded the brain. Drake arched and screamed, coming instantly. Sensation obliterated everything. Riot thrashed like it had been caught in a wave of deadly sound. Its claws raked Drake’s skin, but that only intensified the signal and the taste of blood beneath its claws was overwhelming. There was no escaping the tide as they twisted together. Drake wrenched one of Riot’s limbs away from where it was gouging his chest and bit into it with inhuman teeth. Riot writhed with the force of sensation and a sudden deep craving. 

Eventually the signal faded, the nerves going back to their resting state. Both of them twitched as they regained control. Drake was gulping deep breaths and he bled from the fresh lacerations across his chest. Riot wasn’t healing them. Not yet. Its limb was still caught between Drake’s teeth, right where the wrist would be if Riot were actually human rather than merely mimicking. It wanted something vast and terrible. It was sure Drake could feel the desire through the link.

 **Do it,** Riot echoed Drake’s earlier words. Drake’s eyes slid shut and he exhaled sharply, but he didn’t hesitate. His teeth sank deeper into Riot’s flesh and tore away a piece. The pain was negligible, but the feeling of letting itself be bitten, fed upon by a host, burned through it. Riot wrapped a tendril around Drake’s throat so it could feel him swallow. Drake was a human. His cells weren’t optimised for information exchange. He didn’t even _have_ plasmids, but this was how his species took in outside material, integrated it into their own flesh.

Riot’s tendril caressed Drake’s throat. The back and forth feedback of a predator’s satisfaction was flooding their bond. **You’ve given me a lot to think about,** Riot said after a long moment. Its first loyalty would always be to its people, but if even half the humans, even a tiny fraction (billions, Drake had said _billions_ of humans on this planet), were this compatible that could change things. Another predator species. A species that fought and killed like Riot’s people did. It had never believed in optimal hosts, but perhaps an optimal host _species_ was not so absurd.

‘Good. How are you feeling?’

 **Hungry.** Riot decided after further contemplation. It had started patching the last few wounds as they talked and Drake’s body was running out of reserves for them. Both of them.

Drake huffed a laugh, the sound fond and warm. ‘Unsurprising, after all of that.’ He hesitated for a moment. ‘It’s quite late and there won't be many people around. While it’s probably more sensible to go to the labs, there are options.’

**What options?**

‘I can probably get us to the ocean without drawing attention at this hour. We could hunt wild aquatic animals, if you liked. Obviously that would require full symbiosis in the water. Humans are hardly evolved for that kind of environment.’

Drake was right that the sensible answer was to eat the stored prey animals in the lab. But Riot had just spent an entire evening indulging instead of doing the sensible thing and it had gone very well. 

**You want to hunt together?** It tried not to sound as hopeful as it felt.

‘Like I said. I want everything we can be together.’ 

Riot hesitated for another moment. Then they got to their feet. The movement was more fluid than either of them could have managed alone. Drake smiled with Riot’s teeth.


End file.
